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The Teenage Years - Why They Are The Best Years To Learn!

Research shows that the adolescent years are the best years to learn. Click here to know some interesting facts about the brain.

By: DoctorNDTV |Updated: Dec 25, 2017 11:19 IST

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Did you know, boredom is stressful for the young, adolescent brain?

HIGHLIGHTS

The adolescent mind is more responsive towards reward reception

Girls reach full brain development at 20 and boys reach the same at 25

Boredom is stressful for the young, adolescent brain

The adolescent mind is more responsive towards reward reception, says a new study which shows that this can make learning easier. "The adolescent brain is very sensitive to feedback. That makes adolescence the ideal time to acquire and retain new information," Sabine Peters from the Leiden University in the Netherlands said. Researchers made use of a lot of data from her research with MRI scans. It was conducted over a period of five years when as many as 736 brain scans were taken of 300 subjects aged 8-29.

Peters revealed that this data set is around 10 times larger than most other studies.

During the MRI scan, participants were required to solve a memory game during which the researchers were to give an assessment of their performance. This study appeared in Nature Communications journal.

"If the adolescent received useful feedback, then you saw the corpus striatum being activated. This was not the case with less pertinent feedback, for example, if the test person already knew the answer," Peters added.

"The stronger your brain recognises that difference, the better the performance in the learning task. Brain activation could even predict learning performance two years into the future," said Peters.

Did you know these facts about the brain?

1. Girls reach full brain development at 20 and boys reach the same at 25.

2. Adolescents do not fully access the cause and effect relationship. This is why they do not realize most of the time what they did wrong or why they got into trouble.

3. Your mind controls your brain; your brain does not control your mind. Hence you must work towards a growth mind set which promotes positivity and happy learning.

4. Boredom is stressful for the young, adolescent brain.

5. The adolescent brain requires breaks to keep the learning process going. After every 10-20 minutes, kids need to move around for a minute or two to reset their attention.